


Diamonds

by TFALokiwriter



Category: Space Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Denial of Feelings, Gen, White Dwarf Star, s1e12: My Favorite Marcia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25110706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: Takes place after Commander Gampu realizes who sent out the Galactic Distress Beacon during the events of My Favorite Marcia.
Relationships: Isaac Gampu/Marcia Giddings (past)





	Diamonds

Gampu's boot stepped on a sharp and hard surface merely a few minutes after leaving the Sunbeam behind. He yelped withdrawing his leg then jumped back crashing against a boulder. Tee Gar knelt down and so did Laura around what the man had jumped back from as he clenched on to his shirt regaining his bearings. Tee Gar picked up a handful of the transparent but glittering material into his hands weighing it with care.

"Diamonds!" Tee Gar exclaimed.

"Diamonds being this close to the surface?" Laura asked. "Why, diamonds are normally found below."

"Or in the ocean floor." Gampu mused.

It was a short moment in which it dawned on Tee Gar and Laura.

"This used to be a ocean!" Laura realized out loud as she exclaimed.

The quite older man looked around the landscape as he imagined when it were alive only a matter of weeks before the star, what Gampu speculated it really was mere hours ago, a formerly red supergiant reaching the end. He had been here a short time ago during his long life span.

Gampu remembered attending a tour within the large body of water among a group of tourists mixed with other species from different ancient planets and shared in the awe of life prevailing on a planet that lived on the edge of a dying star a week before this incident. All manner of life had been evacuated with the combine efforts of every member in the known galaxy to rescue the many lifeforms.

It had been quite a momentous but impressive and touching sight watching ships race back and forth working in harmony extracting thousands if not millions of people fleeing from the system that was about to become no more and relocate them to a new settlement. Views like those made him wish that those he had known during the third star war were capable of seeing this unity happen long after they were gone because of their sacrifice to make sure that no more conflicts were about by standing tall, trusting the Vegans who were desperate as well to live, to love.

"A very vast and wide ocean." Tee Gar said.

"Tee Gar, please hand me the diamonds." Gampu said.

"Sure, Commander." Tee Gar handed the older man the diamonds.

"Is this for Marcia?" Laura asked.

 _"Marcia_? No." Gampu said as he scowled. "My retirement savings." He looked upon the pile of diamonds. "Another scoop please."

Laura was quite surprised by that comment as was Tee Gar.

"Aren't commanders supposed to be well financed?" Laura asked, curious, but puzzled.

"A generous payment but this is for a different finance outside of the Galactic." Gampu said.

"Everything is more expensive outside of Galactic." Laura admitted with a nod.

Gampu directed Tee Gar to pick up another clump as he hid the diamonds into his pocket with a single motion of his hand. Laura nodded, that made sense. He was a very curious old man still seeking for knowledge, for something new, and people to help. Gampu was a scientist by soul and rescuer by heart. Any of those operations would be more expensive than it was in their galaxy.

"How long do you have with your current life span?" Tee Gar asked. "If you don't mind me asking, you must be saving up for replacement equipment for your retirement ship.

"I can only guess." Gampu admitted then sheepishly nodded in agreement to the last part of Tee Gar's assumption. "It could be anywhere from two hundred to another three hundred years. "

Tee Gar did as he were directed to continue doing.

"Are you sure this isn't for Marcia Giddings, Commander?" Laura asked, teasingly. "Just to make sure that she doesn't have to go to a planet like this to find something worth trading?"

Gampu looked toward Laura, raising his brows then lowered them, frowning.

"This is not to send Marcia somewhere expensive where she will never have to search for something worth trading ever again."

"Or give something expensive to her." Laura said.

"I admit, the idea is entertaining but. . ." Gampu winced.

"But, what?" Laura asked.

"It has been twenty years since I last saw her and I doubt that she will want anything from me." Gampu elaborated. "Neither do I want anything from her."

"Time makes the heart grow fonder, commander." Laura said.

" _Absence_ makes the heart grow fonder," Gampu mused as he tucked clumps of diamonds ranging in size and weight into his pockets then looked upon the younger man. "Get up, Tee Gar."

Gampu gently waved his hand beckoning the boy up to his feet.

"Oraco." Tee Gar said.

Gampu helped the cadet up to his feet.

"That is more than enough." Gampu said. "Perhaps, I do care about her future not just her health." the commander walked on ahead of the cadets who followed after him in a short filed line. "Everything is much complicated between adults outside of the Space Academy."

"Nothing is complicated when it comes from the heart," Laura said.

"Oh, things are still complicated that way." Gampu said. "Three hundred years ago, I believed things weren't so complicated and easy to understand, deduce, and make a decision over."

"That must have bit you in the back." Laura said.

"It did from time to time." Gampu admitted.

"Was Marcia that way?" Tee Gar asked.

"Marcia's space trading always comes around to bite her."

"Sounds like she were a unique traveling companion." Laura said with a laugh.

"How she was for a time. How she was. . ." Gampu looked off, fondly, with affection in his eyes toward a specific memory as he briefly paused. Gampu resumed walking on ahead of the cadets who resumed following him. "I was wrong in the past about the view of the world."

"And Marcia?" Tee Gar asked.

"I wasn't wrong about her." Gampu said.

The cadets laughed.

"But, sometimes her problems are not worth being associated with." The commander added as a anecdote.

"Sounds like tough love, Commander." Tee Gar said.

"Yes." The commander nodded.

"That's difficult." Laura said.

"Simple and complicated." Gampu sighed, shaking his head, visibly bothered by the choice that he had to make back then. "I had to decide if I loved my command more than I. . . "

"More than you what?" Tee Gar asked.

Gampu paused, briefly, before adding.

" _Loved_ Marcia."

He lifted his attention up then shielded his eyes gazing toward the small white dwarf star that the planet was closely orbiting then had a small smile as the cadets stood side by side along the trail of mechanical footprints. Tee Gar and Laura exchanged a glance with one another as they grew a smile. It was quite unprovoked for him to say 'love', but surprising, as they had only considered he would say it as 'cared'.

"With luck on my side, I chose my crew." Gampu said.

"That's rough, Commander." Tee Gar said.

"More rough than our parents getting to have us." Laura agreed. "Getting together, deciding, making sure that our eggs were healthy enough for fertilization. If this time, the eggs would take."

"Your sympathy is beyond wonderful, Laura." Gampu said. "I look forward to meeting your parents at graduation."

"I look forward introducing you to them as well!" Laura exclaimed.

"My discipline wasn't as it was now over three hundred years ago, but I know things aren't so simple and don't remain simple for long so the window of opportunity must be taken to keep it simple."

"If you knew her when you were three hundred years younger. . ." Laura said.

"I would have made the same decision." Gampu said.

"Would it have hurt you to do that?" Laura asked.

"Back then? Not at all." Gampu said, after a short moment of reflection. "Twenty years ago, it did." he lowered his hand then linked it behind it back as he resumed walking on. "I had others who cared about me three hundred years ago. I cared about my well-being more than I do now."

"I can believe that." Laura said. "It took you a lot of experience to become wise and caring."

"Indeed . . . indeed." Gampu said, quietly. "Let's carry on this rescue program."

Gampu lead the group carefully around the mechanical foot prints.

"Wherever this creature may be heading toward, we will find Marcia." Gampu mused out loud. "Space traders are notoriously found around any dangerous creatures and _any_ desperate people."


End file.
